Jonah Running From Grace by AJ

0:30 Opening Remarks, Church News, and Community Announcements Hello. Hello. Yeah, that's working great. Good morning, everyone. It's lovely to be here with you at West Lakes. I've got my theme shirt on. As you can see, I don't get enough, haven't had enough celebratory opportunities to use it in recent years. 0:49 Hey, knowing that it was going to be all age this morning, I said to Judy, maybe I should make a sheet for the, the the younger people here to sort of occupy them. There's a bunch of these at the back. You're very welcome to go and grab one. There's plenty for adults if you need a little distraction as well. 1:07 There's oh, there's all sorts of things, You know, there's a word search. You got to find the differences in the pictures and you're going to have to listen carefully because I don't actually tell you the words that are in the word search. That was a little little bit of A twist, but thanks to Claude AI help me make that. 1:25 I'm very pleased. 1 little fact that didn't come up in the video about the network dinner. Thanks for hosting the dinner. That's going to be Oh, sorry, the the network conference. The network conference starts with a, a, a free dinner and it culminates with a free lunch. 1:42 So get yourself along if you are involved in leadership or aspiring to or just like to come and hang out with people. It really is an open invitation. And thank you, West Lakes, for hosting it. The exciting news, too, is that the Baptist churches now own this building as of Friday, so we're no longer renting it from the Uniting Church. 2:02 And that, yeah, the stability of the you guys being able to be here is well and truly secured so you can start getting real serious about how you want to change it. That'll be fun, won't it? That will be fun. Look, I thought with Amanda's announcement, too, it would just be. 2:20 And thank you, Amanda. Well, I can't see where Amanda is now. Thank you for the humble way that you you shared that. And thank you for all your years of service on eldership. And thank you to the eldership team here. You know, it's a, it is a, it is a burden, you know, carrying that sort of the, you know, the spiritual weight of a, of a church. 2:40 And you guys have have been in a tricky season the last couple of years. And our prayer, my prayers, you know, that that this next bit's going to be all sorts of new things and exciting things that we'll see the gospel go out. So God bless you. 2:59 Yeah. Thank you. 3:01 Exploring Jonah: Literal Story or Artistic Narrative? Judy asked me to launch a series on Jonah, which I will endeavour to do that today. I've called the I've called today's message running from Grace. I don't know if you've got any experience in doing that, but I certainly know in my own life, you know, we can have a tendency to run away from the very thing that we should chase after. 3:22 And I guess that's a huge theme in Jonah. Before we dive in, I want to spend a few minutes on a question that sits behind every book of the Bible. As as we go to them, we definitely should ask what? What am I reading? 3:37 What is this literature? Where did it come from? What's how does it fit into the big of, of of the Bible? Christians land in different places when it comes to the book of Jonah. For a long time and right up until more modern literary analysis, the common position was that this was a true and fairly literal story. 3:57 But as scholarship has built up over the years, that view has been challenged. Some now see it as history, some see it as having a historical core core but told with artistry so based in history. And some just some see it as a carefully crafted fictional story. 4:15 And I want to say upfront, the way you land on this takes nothing away from the fabulous piece of writing that this is. I really encourage you to go home today and read the whole book. We're going to read chapter 1. It's only four chapters, but get a feel for the whole thing so you can really enjoy this series over the next bunch of weeks. 4:35 It's a spiritually challenging book. It's include it was included in our in our Bible by our forefathers of faith and it's super relevant today and our own wrestles in faith life. An important thing to note many have pointed this out is that Jesus himself picks up the story of Jonah and he preaches from it. 4:56 This is recorded in both Matthew 11 and in sorry, Matthew 12 and Luke 11. He uses Jonah as a sign pointing to his own death and resurrection. Many people conclude, well, if that if it's good enough for Jesus to recount it like history, then it's good enough for me. 5:15 And I think that's a legitimate way to conclude. And, and this has motivated some Christians to have a fairly hard line on how they view the book because they feel like biblical authority is somehow at stake. You know, perhaps authority is being watered down if we land in a place where we don't view Jonah as a literal story. 5:37 But personally, I'm also happy with the with the other possibility that Jonah is a literary story rather than a literal story, a story well known in its time and resonating in the ancient culture in the same way that it resonates in our culture. 5:53 And it's talked about matter of factly. So we, we do this a lot. When you stop and think about it, if I say to you, well, you're not Robinson Crusoe on that one, meaning that you're not the only one feeling that way. You're not the only one in that in that situation. 6:11 I'm not actually saying anything historical about Robinson Crusoe at all. Similarly, I might say to you, quoting from, you know, the great sage Forest Gump. Life is a box of choc. Life is like a box of chocolates. 6:26 If I say that to to you, none of us think that I'm making a claim about Robinson Crusoe or Forrest Gump as actual history based on a true story or whether that's just a ripping yarn. We have a connection point with the idea, the spiritual truth of it. 6:43 So Jesus could refer could be referring to Jonah in the same way without him telling us anything about how to classify. And honestly, I don't think it matters. I thought it was a good place to start, but I honestly don't think it matters. Jonah is in our Bible because our forebears judged it to be inspired by God. 7:02 And that's good enough for me. What I do notice, and you should notice this too, the the language in the book is beautifully artistic. The plot has a rhythm to it. Things happen in threes, there's echoes and reversals, and they're ending as a cliffhanger, cliffhanger. 7:20 And it's not really the ending that you'd typically put in a historical account because the Earth author turns the reader turns to the reader and he asks us, So what are you going to do about this? What, what's the moral of the story for you? What are you going to do in your life in response to it? 7:38 And those are the questions that you'll be sitting with for the next few weeks. And I encourage you to enjoy it. 7:44 Why We Avoid Doing What God Asks Us To Do So let's get started. It starts with something relatable. Have you ever known you should do something and you really don't want to do it? I don't mean something terrible. 7:59 There might be those two. I mean ordinary things, getting off my backside to help someone. Have you, have you had those situations where you go, I don't want to do that or just picking up the phone and giving someone a call. Somebody drops into your heart, You think I should ring them? 8:15 I don't want to ring them. It might be good for you to ring them. No, I don't want to ring them. Helping a This is one that's relevant for me. Helping a young mum. She's in the she's in the car park, she's wrestling a toddler and her trolley starts to roll away. 8:31 You know, do I, do I get involved? Well, perhaps you relate. It might perhaps it relates to relationships. Apologising to someone, just owning that was wrong, admitting when you were wrong, Forgiving someone, including a person in that you don't particularly want to or you don't particularly like them. 8:52 Doing something difficult just simply because you know it's right to do. I guess we all run away from these things. I thought this was a good place for me just to wedge in my AJ BIG4. I call them the difficultest things to say. 9:08 Kids, this is a great lesson. If I wish I'd learned this earlier in life. These are the hard things to say, but they're powerful things to say. We can run away from them. I was wrong. I am sorry, please forgive me. 9:24 And then reversing it back around the other way. I forgive you. And sometimes the I forgive you isn't in response, is it to somebody actually asking forgiveness. It's actually something that has to shift in out the privacy of our heart. Lord I forgive him. 9:41 Lord I forgive her. Lord, I forgive them. These are 4 incredibly powerful things to say if we can get past the difficulties of them. Anyway, here's what I've noticed. Most of the time, the hardest part isn't knowing what God wants. 9:57 It's wanting what God wants. 9:59 The Prophet's Flight: Jonah's Journey to Tarshish And Jonah is a man who knows exactly what God wants him to do, and he deliberately goes in the opposite direction. He's not going to Nineveh. He's going to Tarshish. Now, if you're working on your word thing, you probably need to listen to that. 10:15 He goes to Nineveh. Sorry. Instead of going to Nineveh, he heads towards Tasha's. And from everyone else's point of view, there's actually nothing to see here. From everybody else's point of view, Jonah is just going on a holiday to Spain. 10:35 And this is the thing with what we call sins of omission. It's between US and God. Sins of Commission, the bad stuff we do, they're easy. I shout out foul abuse at you over morning tea this morning and something's going to have to be done about it, isn't it? 10:55 It's probably going to come up at the elders meeting. What about that network pastor shouting abuse over the chocolate eclair? But if I'm prompted by God's whisper in my heart to stop and say help a motorist, that's broken down again, another touch point for me. 11:15 But I can't be bothered. Well, that sin is never coming up at a deacons meeting or at the elders meeting, is it? I'm just driving by. It's just between me and God. In this story, there is a surprise waiting for us. 11:30 Jonah's problem isn't simply that he doesn't want to obey God. By chapter 4, we'll discover why he runs away from God. And when we do, I think it's will and should make us a little uncomfortable because it might be closer to home than we like. 11:47 Let's read the let's read the script together. So we're going, there's 17 verses. I'll try and read through it. I'm, I'm sure many of us are quite familiar with the story, but look out for something you hadn't ever picked up on properly. The Lord spoke his word to Jonah, son of Amitai. Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it. 12:06 Because I see the evil things they do. But Jonah got up to run away from the Lord by going to Tarshish. He went to the city of Joppa where he could, where he found a ship that was going to the city of Tarshish. Jonah paid for the trip and he went aboard, planning to go to Tarshish to run away from the Lord. 12:25 But the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, which made the sea so stormy that the ship was in danger of breaking apart. The sailors were afraid and each man cried to his own God. They began throwing the cargo from the ship into the sea to make the ship lighter. But Jonah had gone down far inside the ship to lie down and he fell fast asleep. 12:45 The captain of the ship came and said, why are you sleeping? Get up and pray to your God. Maybe your God will pay attention to us and we won't die. Then the men said to each other, let's throw lots that's sort of like dice or drawing straws. 13:01 Let's throw lots to see who caused these troubles to happen to us. When they threw lots, the lots showed that the trouble had happened because of Jonah. And then they said to him, Tell us who caused our trouble? What is your job? 13:16 Where do you come from? What is your country? Who are your people? Then Jonah said to them, I'm a Hebrew, I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land. The men were very afraid, and they asked Jonah, what terrible thing did you do? 13:32 They knew he was running away from the Lord because he had told them since the wind and the waves of the sea were becoming much stronger. They said to him, What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us? Jonah said, Pick me up and throw me into the sea and then it will calm down. 13:49 I know it is my fault that the Great Storm has come on you. Instead. The men tried to row the ship back to the land, but they could not because the sea was becoming more stormy. So the men cried to the Lord. Lord, please don't let us die because of this man's life. 14:05 Please don't think we are guilty of killing an innocent person. Lord, you have caused all this to happen. You wanted it this way. So they picked up Jonah and they threw him into the sea, and the sea became calm. Then they began to fear the Lord very much. 14:21 They offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made promises to him. The Lord caused a big fish to swallow Jonah and Jonah was inside the fish. 3 days and three nights. 14:35 Unpacking Jonah's Resistance to God's Mercy for Nineveh There we go. It's a ripping start to the yarn isn't it eh? As we have seen, the book opens with the command. God says to Jonah go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it. Now we need a little context here. Nineveh was the capital of Assyria, and Assyria was the brutal enemy of Israel. 14:53 So we could therefore understand that what God is actually saying to Jonah and Israelite, I want you to go to your enemies and tell them that I'm giving them an opportunity to repent. It sort of changes it a bit, doesn't it? 15:11 I'm asking you to go to your enemies and tell them that I'm giving them an opportunity to repent. Jonah isn't simply being asked to do an unpleasant job like, I don't know, you go on the roster to clean the church toilets or have an awkward conversation with a guy who shouted at someone over a chocolatey clear. 15:30 He's being asked to offer God's mercy to a people. He doesn't want to receive it. And let's notice what God is actually doing here. He wants to give the Ninevites a warning. Always in a warning where judgement is coming. 15:46 In that warning, it's an act of kindness because God is giving them a chance to turn around in the same way that he gives us a chance to turn around. And Paul says something quite powerful in Romans 2, verse 4. 16:01 God's kindness is intended to lead you to repentance. God's kindness is intended to lead you to repentance. So judgement is coming, but mercy is being offered, and that's what God is doing with Nineveh. 16:20 And then comes the most striking words, possibly in this chapter, possibly in this whole book, but verse 3. But Jonah ran away from the Lord. God says go, Jonah says no and look where he goes. Nineveh is. 16:35 Nineveh is to the east and Tasha is to the far edge of the no and West over near Spain somewhere. Nice place for a holiday. Jonah doesn't merely hesitate or argue or drag his feet. He buys a ticket and heads in exactly the opposite direction. 16:53 So let me ask you, why would a prophet of God run from God? At this point in the story, we don't have the answer. The book gives it to a slowly, piece by piece. But to understand Jonah, I want to borrow another story from Jesus. 17:10 You probably know the story. It's in Luke 15. We usually call it the parable of the prodigal son, and we usually think of it as a story of a younger brother. He asks for his inheritance from his father. He leaves home, he squanders everything and he ends up feeding pigs. 17:29 He's the rebel. He's the one who ran away. He wanted the he wanted his father's possessions without his father. But Jesus story really should be called, and I think it is these days in the the the story of two lost sons. 17:46 There's also an older brother who stays home. He does what he's told. He looks respectable. All that, all the while, resentment grows in his heart at his father's generosity. How could he give that away to my younger brother? 18:04 Now here's my suggestion. Jonah looks much more like the older brother than the younger one. Think about it. Jonah is God's prophet. He knows God, he serves God, he knows God's word. He's not a Pagan or a rebel. He's on the inside. 18:19 And so Jonah's running away isn't simply I don't want to obey God, as we'll discover. It's I don't want those people to receive God's mercy. Let me say that again. I don't want those people to receive God's mercy. 18:36 The Storm, the Fish, and God's Relentless Pursuit Hold that thought. Jonah runs, but God doesn't let him go. Verse 4, The Lord hurled a great wind on the sea. God sends a storm. Here's an important distinction. The storm is God's judgement, but it's also God's mercy. God could have just let Jonah sail peacefully off to Spain, smooth seas, fair winds, a comfortable journey away from his calling. 19:00 Instead, God interrupts him. Sometimes God's kindness doesn't feel very kind at first. Sometimes it arrives as a disruption, a plan that falls through a door that closes, a house that doesn't do what it was supposed to do. But God's pursuit of Jonah is disruptive, but it is grace at a personal level. 19:24 I, I don't know, this might, might encourage you or one of my spiritual practices with the Lord is I've got this long standing agreement with him. If coincidental things happen, I'll take notice that they happened and I'll stop, take a step back and ask God is there some meaning or is this something I need to be allow this sort of disruption to affect in my life? 19:50 One thing that happened for me a few years ago was I had trouble with the trailers indicator and then I had trouble with the cars indicator and then I had trouble with my own my wifes car and then I had trouble with my own car by the 3rd indicator issue. I'm thinking, hang on a moment, is there something I need to get out of this disruption? 20:07 Lord, I'm sick of fixing these, these, these indicator lights. And as I step back and I asked the Lord, it was AJ, you need to let people know what you're doing a little bit better. That was helpful for me. 20:22 I could, I could have a look at my life and think I'm sort of acting independently a lot. I need to be better. And that simple thing probably averted a bunch of hassles. So allowing God's disruptions to speak into our lives. 20:39 I've lost my place. Oh, here we go, Romans 2. Four again. God's kindness is intended to lead us to repentance. God is chasing Jonah down, and it's because he loves him. The irony here and there's some comical bits in this story, aren't there? 20:57 The irony here is that the pagans are doing a better job than the prophet. This is where it gets comical. The sailors are terrified. Imagine this. Jana's the prophet for Israelite people, the ocean was a pretty dangerous place. 21:13 He wasn't used to being on the ocean. He's down there sleeping, but the the hardened sailors are terrified, each crying out to his own God, throwing cargo overboard to try and stop the ship from sinking. And where's Jonah? Fast asleep. 21:28 The pagans are praying and God's prophet is snoring down down in the ship. Jonah knows the true God. The sailors don't yet. Look how they behave when they discover Jonah is the cause of the storm. They don't want to throw him overboard. 21:45 They don't want to throw them overboard. They immediately row with all of their heart but the but but God's disruptive disruption is too disrupting trying to get back to land and save everyone. When they finally in their terror agree to do what Jonah asks, they pray. 22:02 Please, Lord, do not let us die for taking this man's life. The pagans are turning to God while the prophets running from God. Then the sea goes calm and verse 16 says that they feared the Lord. 22:19 They offered a sacrifice and made vows. It's ironic, isn't it? They're turning towards God. This is a pattern throughout the book and it's a sort of a fork. It's a, it's a little taste of where we get to in, in, in. In later chapters, the Ninevites will respond. 22:38 Jonah doesn't. It's as if everybody gets the point except God's own prophet. In verse 12, Jonah says something remarkable. Pick me up. Throw me into the sea. There's something almost admirable here. 22:53 Jonah says. In effect, this is my fault. He knows he's been running from God and he wants to own it. But notice what he tells them. Throw me into the sea. That's a certain debt. You know, there's certain death in there. 23:12 Jonah would rather die than do what God asked him to do. He would rather die than go to Nineveh. He doesn't say, OK, let me pray, let's turn the ship around and head towards Nineveh. No, I would rather. That's how strongly he feels about the people that God wants to save. 23:30 He would rather drown in the sea than watch his enemies receive mercy. He admits it's his fault, but he's not repentant. He doesn't pray to God to calm the sea so he can obey and fulfil his assignment. No, Chuck me in, let me die. He'd rather drown than let his enemies receive mercy. 23:48 So the sailors throw him overboard reluctantly. The sea grows calm. And then verse 17 says, now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah. And this is where the story becomes famous, comical, and famously comical. 24:05 And we can get caught up in the big fish such that we miss the point. The fish is the rescue, the prophets running from God. The pagans are turning to God. This is a pattern. The sailors respond, the Ninevites respond. Jonah doesn't respond. 24:21 The prophet is disobeying God. Meanwhile, the storm and the ocean are obeying God and the fish is obeying God. And both of these are symbols that the storm, the ocean, and the fish. These are symbols of the uncontrollable and chaotic in the ancient world. 24:39 Jonah has run from God. He hasn't repented, he hasn't obeyed. He's asking. He's asking to be thrown into the deep. And God saves him. Not because Jonah earned it, not because Jonah earned it, Not because Jonah had successfully obeyed. 24:57 God simply pursues him and rescues him. And that's God's grace. And this sets up the central irony of the whole book. Jonah is perfectly happy for God to show mercy to Jonah. He just doesn't want God to show mercy to Nineveh. 25:15 Why We Struggle with God's Grace for Others At the end of chapter 1, it looks like the problem is simple. Jonah doesn't want to obey God. But chapter 4 will reveal something much deeper. Jonah is angry and he prays. And I'm sort of spoiler alert here. He prays. 25:31 I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love. He's ticked off in chapter 4 that the Ninevites actually heed the warning and turned towards God. I knew that you were gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love. 25:50 He's effectively saying, I knew you would forgive them. And that's why he ran, not because he was afraid of Nineveh, because he was afraid God would be kind to Nineveh. And that made suddenly everything makes sense when we realized that. Let's return to Luke 15. 26:06 The younger brother finally comes home and while he is still a long way off, the father sees him. I love that part of the story. It's like the father's looking, longing for this prodigal son, this disobedient son, the sinful son to return. 26:22 And he's watching. And when the father sees him, he runs out to meet his son. There's a robe, he, there's a ring, there's a feast, there's music, there's dancing. And the older brother refuses to go in to the celebration. 26:41 The father comes out to the older brother again, Grace, he comes out to us and the and the brother says this this son of yours, this son of yours, he's not owning the relationship. 27:00 He could have said my brother, but he says this son of yours. And the father in his answer replies, this brother of yours was dead and now he is alive again. It's quite beautiful, isn't it? 27:15 The older brother's problem isn't simply disobedience. He's been in the Father's house all along. His problem is that he doesn't want the Father's grace to extend to someone he doesn't think deserves it, and that's Jonah. 27:32 Nineveh is Jonah's. Nineveh is Jonah's. The younger brother, if you like. Jonah is standing outside the party with his arms folded. And notice that Jesus ends the story the same way the book of Jonah ends with a cliffhanger. 27:48 We never find out whether the older brother went into the party. Jesus leaves that hanging, and we never really know whether Jonah truly repented. But I think all of this is aimed squarely at us, asking us the question, how are you going to live your life when God's grace to others, you know, creates that angst on the inside? 28:15 Am I more comfortable with God's grace when I'm receiving it than when someone else is receiving it? That's the question Jonah eventually has to face. And that's the question Jesus puts before the older brother. Let's come back to where we started, God, Romans 2. 28:31 God's kindness is intended to lead you to repentance. Look at how saturated Jonah one is with that kindness. God is kind to Jonah by pursuing him, storm and all. God is kind to the sailors by revealing Himself to them. 28:46 God is kind to Nineveh by intending to send Jonah in the 1st place and warn them before judgment comes. So the whole book of Jonah, if we can look at it through that lens, kind of drips with the mercy of God, if I can put it that way. And yet Jonah struggles with it. 29:02 And here's the heart of it. Jonah ran from God because he knew God to be merciful. The older brother stayed outside because he knew the Father was merciful. And both of them had the same problem. They were happy to receive grace, but they struggled when when grace was given to somebody else. 29:20 Experiencing God's Grace: From Head Knowledge to Heart Revelation Understanding God's grace, I think is not. It's a revelation, not an education. I think we can learn a lot about the story of Jesus, about what he did without it sinking from our head to our heart. 29:36 But I think it's the way it's supposed to work is actually by revelation. There comes a moment in our lives where we see the sacrifice and and death of Jesus for ourselves. It's no longer a story, but it's a deep revelation in our heart. 29:55 I remember, well, I guess, I guess these things can can kind of extend too, But I remember listening to a preacher as a fairly young Christian who was describing the suffering that Jesus went through and the truth of it sunk into my heart that night in a different in a different way. 30:15 I wasn't hearing about a story. I was taking the ownership in inside. It was a revelation. Now Faith Walkers is changed from perhaps a godly desire to do the right thing and behave well to a thankful, total trust in God's character. 30:32 I think that's where God's grace takes us. Let me say that again. Our faith walk moves from a a godly desire to do the right thing and behave well to being thankful, total trust in God's character and that spiritual motivation and deeply wanting to do what He wants us to do. 30:51 It comes from a revelation, the eyes of our heart open. We're born again, we're forgiven. I personally have had the incredible privilege of an earthly father who is kind, fair and a good man. 31:07 When I was a kid, the fear of punishment from my dad helped me to do what my dad wanted me to do. There's no doubt about that. But as I matured, I don't fear my dad's punishment. 31:25 He's 90, hard for him to punish. But as I matured, you know, through my teens and into my 20s, I didn't fear my dad's punishment, but my desire to please him and not let him down, to put a smile on his face has been a much more powerful internal force in my life. 31:45 And I think that's where we're supposed to get to with God. It's it's it's when we eyeball his grace, it puts within us a powerful internal motivation to do things that put a smile on his face. 32:00 A Call to Embrace God's Kindness for All, Including Our Enemies So I'll leave you with this question and I want you to take it home. Is God's kindness leading me to repentance or with certain people, am I standing outside the party angry about who else God is being kind to? 32:17 Because the good news is that in Jesus start, the father goes out to the brother too. And in the book of Jonah, God doesn't give up on Jonah. And the rest of the book is his patient attempt to reach out to Jonah to love what God actually loves. 32:37 And I think if we see it through that lens, there's much more here than a big fish. So I'd invite the Museos to come and join me for our closing off and, and let me pray. Father, we, when we search our heart, we, we do know that there are people who aggravate us, Lord, for whatever reason, things that they've done to us, perhaps just attitudes towards various groups and things like things like that. 33:09 Lord, we invite your Holy Spirit to continue to, to search our heart. Lord, we'd like to be people who just want to do what you want us to do. Lord, we'd like to be people whose lives are filled with your grace in such a way that we can say words like I was wrong, I'm sorry, I forgive you, will you forgive me? 33:32 Lord, we thank you for the person of Jesus. We thank you that it's your kindness that leads us to repentance. And we ask that you continue to take us on that journey. Lord, Amen. 33:52 Speaker 1 Thank you for joining us today. We hope that through this message you have been drawn nearer to God. If you would like to know more about God or New Vine Westlakes, please visit our website newvinewestlakes.com dot AU. We would love to hear the stories of how God is moving in your life. 34:09 Bless you.